STEWARD RIGHTS

• The right to investigate and adjust grievances and problems that may
become grievances;

• The right to paid time to conduct those activities;

• The right to obtain management information;

• Superseniority concerning being involuntarily transferred;

• An employee’s right to steward representation during an Inspection
Service interrogation.

Steward Rights—Activities Included.

A steward may conduct a broad
range of activities related to the investigation and adjustment of grievances
and of problems that may become grievances. These activities
include the right to review relevant documents, files and records, as well
as interviewing a potential grievant, supervisors and witnesses. Specific
settlements and arbitration decisions have established that a steward has
the right to do (among other things) the following:

• Write the union statement of corrections and additions to the Formal
Step A decision; Step 4, A8-S-0309, December 7, 1979 (M-01145).
A steward has the right to conduct all such activities on the clock (see
below).

Right to Steward Time on the Clock.

Although a steward must ask for
supervisory permission to leave his or her work area or enter another one
to pursue a grievance or potential grievance, management cannot “unreasonably
deny” requests for paid grievance-handling time.
Management may not determine in advance how much time a steward
reasonably needs to investigate a grievance. National Arbitrator Garrett,
MB-NAT-562/MB-NAT-936, January 19, 1977 (C-427). Rather, the
determination of how much time is considered reasonable is dependent
on the issue involved and the amount of information needed for investigation
purposes. (Step 4, NC-S-2655, October 20, 1976, M-00671).

Steward time to discuss a grievance may not be denied solely because a
steward is in overtime status (Prearbitration Settlement, W4N-5C-C
41287, September 13, 1988, M-00857). It is the responsibility of the
union and management to decide mutually when the steward will be
allowed, subject to business conditions, an opportunity to investigate and
adjust grievances. (Step 4, N-S-2777, April 5, 1973, M-00332)
If management delays a steward from investigating a grievance, it should
inform the steward of the reasons for the delay and when time will be
available. Likewise, the steward has an obligation to request additional
time and give the reasons why it is needed. (Step 4, NC-C 16045,
November 22, 1978, M-00127)
An employee must be given reasonable time to consult with his or her
steward, and such reasonable time may not be measured by a predetermined
factor. (Step 4, H1C-3W-C 44345, May 9, 1985, M-00303)

Although Article 17.4 provides that the grievant and a steward shall be
paid for time actually spent in grievance handling and meetings with
management, there are no contractual provisions requiring the payment
of travel time or expenses in connection with attendance at a Formal
Step A meeting. (Step 4, N8-S-0330, June 18, 1980, M-00716) Nor does
the National Agreement require the payment of a steward who accompanies
an employee to a medical facility for a fitness-for-duty examination.
(Step 4 Settlement, NC-N-12792, December 13, 1978, M-00647)

The appropriate remedy in a case where management has unreasonably
denied a steward time on the clock is an order or agreement to cease and
desist, plus payment to the steward for the time spent processing the
grievance off-the-clock which should have been paid time.

Right to Information.

The NALC’s rights to information relevant to
collective bargaining and to contract administration are set forth in
Article 31. This section states stewards’ specific rights to review and
obtain documents, files and other records, in addition to the right to
interview a grievant, supervisors and witnesses.
Steward requests to review and obtain documents should state how the
request is relevant to the handling of a grievance or potential grievance.
Management should respond to questions and to requests for documents
in a cooperative and timely manner. When a relevant request is made,
management should provide for review and/or produce the requested
documentation as soon as is reasonably possible.

A steward has a right to obtain supervisors’ personal notes of discussions
held with individual employees in accordance with Article 16.2 if the
notes have been made part of the employee’s Official Personnel Folder
or if they are necessary to processing a grievance or determining whether
a grievance exists. (See Mittenthal H8N-3W-C 20711, February 16,
1982, C-03230; Step 4, NC-S 10618, October 8, 1978, M-00106; Step 4,
G90N-4G-C 93050025, February 23, 1994, M-01190)

Weingarten Rights

Federal labor law, in what is known as the Weingarten rule, gives each
employee the right to representation during any investigatory interview
which he or she reasonably believes may lead to discipline. (NLRB v. J.
Weingarten, U.S. Supreme Court, 1975)

The Weingarten rule does not applyto other types of meetings, such as:

• Discussions. Article 16.2 provides that “for minor offenses by an
employee ... discussions ... shall be held in private between the
employee and the supervisor. Such discussions are not discipline and
are not grievable.” So an employee does not have Weingarten representation
rights during an official discussion. See National Arbitrator
Aaron, H1T-1E-C 6521, January 6, 1983, C-03769.

• Employees do not have the right to union representation during fitness-
for-duty physical examinations.
The Weingarten rule applies only,/b> when the meeting is an investigatory
interview—when management is searching for facts and trying to determine
the employee’s guilt or decide whether or not to impose discipline.
The rule does not apply when management calls in a carrier for the purpose
of issuing disciplinary action—for example, handing the carrier a
letter of warning.

An employee has Weingarten representation rights only where he or she
reasonably believes that discipline could result from the investigatory
interview. Whether or not an employee’s belief is “reasonable” depends
on the circumstances of each case. Some cases are obvious, such as
when a supervisor asks an employee whether he discarded deliverable
mail.

The steward cannot exercise Weingarten rights on the employee’s behalf.
And unlike “Miranda rights,” which involve criminal investigations, the
employer is not required to inform the employee of the Weingarten right
to representation.

Employees also have the right under Weingarten to a pre-interview consultation
with a steward. Federal Courts have extended this right to premeeting
consultations to cover Inspection Service interrogations. (U.S.
Postal Service v. NLRB, D.C. Cir. 1992, M-01092).

In a Weingarten interview the employee has the right to a steward’s
assistance—not just a silent presence.

The employer would violate the
employee’s Weingarten rights if it refused to allow the representative to
speak or tried to restrict the steward to the role of a passive observer.
Although ELM Section 666.6 requires all postal employees to cooperate
with postal investigations, the carrier still has the right under Weingarten
to have a steward present before answering questions in this situation.
The carrier may respond that he or she will answer questions once a
steward is provided.

Superseniority in Transfers

The contract contains special provisions protecting steward positions
from transfer or reassignment. These special steward rights are known
as “superseniority.” The steward superseniority provision is contained in
the last paragraph of Article 17.3. That language protects stewards from
being transferred from a facility or tour where letter carriers are working—
unless there is no other city letter carrier job left.
National Arbitrator Britton ruled in H4N-5C-C-17075, November 28,
1988 (C-08504), that Article 17.3 bars both temporary and permanent
reassignments of stewards, and that the prohibition applies even if there
are no vacant job assignments. In other words superseniority rights must
be observed even if it requires an involuntary transfer of another, more
senior carrier, whether full- or part-time. (Step 4, H1N-2B-C 7422,
October 25, 1983, M-00077)

The steward’s superseniority rights override the excessing provisions of
Article 12, Principles of Seniority, Posting and Reassignments. So
NALC stewards are always the last letter carriers to be excessed from a
section, the craft or an installation, regardless of their seniority or their
full- or part-time status.

Information.

Article 31.3 provides that the Postal Service will make
available to the union all relevant information necessary for collective
bargaining or the enforcement, administration or interpretation of the
Agreement, including information necessary to determine whether to
file or to continue the processing of a grievance. It also recognizes the
union’s legal right to employer information under the National Labor
Relations Act. Examples of the types of information covered by this
provision include:

• attendance records

• payroll records

• documents in an employee’s official personnel file

• internal USPS instructions and memorandums

• disciplinary records

• route inspection records

• patron complaints

• handbooks and manuals

• photographs

• reports and studies

• seniority lists

• overtime desired and work assignment lists

• bidding records

• wage and salary records

• training manuals

• Postal Inspection Service investigative memoranda (IM’s)

To obtain employer information the union need only give a reasonable
description of what it needs and make a reasonable claim that the information
is needed to enforce or administer the contract. The union must
have a reason for seeking the information—it cannot conduct a “fishing
expedition” into Postal Service records.
Settlements and arbitration awards have addressed the union’s entitlement
to information in certain specific areas. For example, the union
has a right to any and all information which the employer has relied
upon to support its position in a grievance. (Step 4, H1C-3U-C 6106,
November 5, 1982, M-00316) Note that the union also has an obligation
to provide the Postal Service with information it relies upon in a
grievance. See Article 15 above. The union is also entitled to medical
records necessary to investigate or process a grievance, even without an
employee’s authorization, as provided for in the Administrative Support
Page 31-2 NALC-USPS Joint Contract Administration Manual - November 2005
Manual (ASM) Appendix (USPS 120.090) and by Articles 17 and 31 of
the National Agreement. Step 4, D78N-4D-C 91000498, January 14,
1994, (M-01155) Step 4, H7N-1P-C 2187, November 16, 1988, (M-
00881).
If requests for copies are part of the information request, then USPS
must provide the copies Step 4, H7N-5K-C 23406, May 21, 1992,
(M-01094). A national pre-arbitration settlement established that if the
union provides the Postal Service with a list of officers and stewards,
the Postal Service must indicate which (if any) applied for a supervisory
position within the previous two years. (National Prearbitration
Settlement, H4C-3W-C 27068, February 13, 1990, M-01150) When the
union is provided with information, for example medical records, it is
subject to the same rules of confidentiality as the Postal Service.

Cost. The costs which management may charge the NALC for providing
information are governed by the Administrative Support Manual
(ASM). Step 4, H4N-5R-C 30270, May 22, 1987, (M-00826) Step 4
H7C-3B-C 37176, June 26, 1992, (M-01141). Currently the ASM provides
for a waiver of information fees for the first 100 pages of duplication
and the first two hours of search time. ASM Section 352.735, All
Other Requesters. Otherwise, the costs for searching are set by ASM
Section 352.721 (costs for manual and computer searches) and for
duplication by Section 352.722 (currently 15 cents per page).

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
BETWEEN THE
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE AND
THE JOINT BARGAINING COMMITTEE

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 31 of the National Agreement, as soon as practicable
after the ratification of the 1987 National Agreement between the United States
Postal Service and the Joint Bargaining Committee (JBC), the Employer shall, on an
accounting period basis, provide the Union with a computer tape containing the following
information on those in their respective bargaining units:

SSN 14. Rate Schedule

Last Name 15. Nature of Action

First Name (Full) 16. Effective Date

Middle Initial 17. Pay Grade

Address 18. Pay Step

City 19. Health Benefit Plan

State 20. Designation Activity

ZIP Code 21. Enter on Duty Date

Post Office Name 22. Retire on Date

PO State 23. Layoff

PO ZIP 24. Occupation Code

PO Finance Number 25. Pay Location

PO CAG

NALC-USPS Joint Contract Administration Manual - November 2005 Page 31-3
As a result of the Joint Bargaining Committee’s request to have the full first name
included, each Union will pay 50 percent of the actual systems and programming cost
associated with this change, not to exceed a total cost of $10,000. Subsequently, the
Postal Service will provide the Unions with the information above without charge.
Date: July 21, 1987
Page 31-4